We analyze the vehicle usage and consumer profile attributes extracted from both National Household Travel Survey and Vehicle Quality Survey data to understand the impact of vehicle usage upon consumers’ choices of hybrid electric vehicles in the US. In addition, the key characteristics of hybrid vehicle drivers are identified to determine the market segmentations of hybrid electric vehicles an...

In order to ensure superiority of fuel and improve start and stop performance of hybrid electric vehicle, battery is used in the system. Limited by vehicle’s size, traditional hybrid electric vehicles can only carry a limited number of batteries, resulting in a relatively short running distance in one battery charge cycle. To improve energy using efficiency and increase vehicle safety, composit...

Vehicle simulation software is essential to vehicle design and development. Most current vehicle software simulations, however, require that components be specified prior to running the simulations. Within this context, this paper presents a simulator offering to users flexibility enough to add new component and use different level of accuracy. Thus a first version of a new software tool, in or...

GPS data for a year’s worth of travel by 255 Seattle households illuminate how plug-in electric vehicles can match household needs. The results suggest that a battery-electric vehicle (BEV) with 100 miles of range should meet the needs of 50% of one-vehicle households and 80% of multiple-vehicle households, when charging once a day and relying on another vehicle or mode just 4 days a year. More...

Automobiles have an influence on the global environment that cannot be disregarded, not only through air pollution in cities but also through large carbon dioxide emission that leads to global warming. A hybrid electric vehicle combining a gasoline engine and an electric motor has proved to be an effective means to solve these problems. Electrical energy flow of the vehicle is controlled with i...

Electric Vehicle (EV) battery technologies is a limiting factor for the wide spread diffusion of electric vehicles. EV battery’s energy density compared to fossil fuels is still very low, thus EV’s have still stringent driving range with voluminous, heavy and high cost batteries. Automotive OEM’s are trying to estimate the future of batteries to do their plans related to electric vehicle manufa...